Benefits and employee loyalty Jul 10, 2008 By Jennifer Benz

The MetLife Study of Employee Benefits Trends has some great information on employer and employee perspectives on benefits—especially the link between benefits and loyalty.

Chart from Metlife.com

Employers rated retention as their primary benefits objective (for the second year in a row) but employers may still be underestimating just how important benefits are to creating and maintaining loyalty. Across the board, employees rate benefits as a “very important” factor in employee loyalty more than employers (see the chart).

No surprise, employees who believe their benefits communication educates them effectively are more satisfied and loyal—71% are satisfied with their benefits and 72% feel a strong sense of loyalty. Compare that to employees who don’t feel their benefits communication is effective—only 16% are satisfied with their benefits and only 40% have a strong sense of loyalty.

The Employee Benefit News article on the study said, ”Don’t assume you have to add benefits to increase loyalty… It may only take some improvements in benefits communication.” I couldn’t have said that better myself!

For the full report, visit MetLife’s Benefits Trends page.